NHS Bill-It must be stopped before it is too late

In what must be seen as a major blow to the government and in particular the beleaguered health secretary Andrew Lansley,the influential Tory blog Conservative Home has come out against the NHS bill describing it as not just a distraction but potentially fatal to the Conservative Party's electoral prospects.

Editor Tim Montgomerie writes that:

The NHS was long the Conservative Party’s Achilles heel. David Cameron’s greatest political achievement as Leader of the Opposition was to neutralise health as an issue. The greatest mistake of his time as Prime Minister has been to put it back at the centre of political debate.

and continues

Following a week in which it has been reported that certain members of the cabinet reputedly wanted him taken out and shot and despite wholesale support during angry PMQ clashed,this must surely be another massive blow for Lansley,for it is certain that certain members of the Tory hierarchy are behind the article.

As Montgomerie adds

Andrew Lansley will have to move on. He will have to move on because he hasn’t been able to communicate these reforms in a streetwise way and he has been unnecessarily confrontational with NHS staff.

Burnham's olive branch to Lansley

The new shadow health secretary Andy Burnham has held out an olive branch to his Tory counterpart Andrew Lansley over the battle ground for health reform that may well dominate the next few months in Parliament.

Burnham has said : "Drop your bill and we'll work with you to reform NHS commissioning"
whilst adding

"The NHS is now in the danger zone. You have failed to build a consensus around your plans. It's time to stop digging in. Listen and change course or you will damage patient care."

Burnham,who was appointed on Friday has written to the health secretary with what he calls a constructive offer to resolve the "dangerous stalemate" on NHS reform.

Burnham believes the financial challenge is the overriding priority for the NHS but that the Government's contested top-down re-organisation is proving to be a dangerous and damaging distraction.

This is a genuine offer and I hope he will accept it. But make no mistake - we will fight the Government every step of the way if it tries to force these dangerous reforms on the NHS. They will unpick the fabric of the NHS and it will never be the same again."

Sad epitaph of the tick box culture

Today's news that a Stafford Hospital was found to have 'routinely neglected' patients while the management was preoccupied with cost-cutting is nothing short of an absolute disgrace.

Whilst this may be a seen as an isolated incident,it will be held up by the Tories in particular as being systematic of the heavy handed approach to management and systems in not only the NHS but across the public sector.

The Tories are crying out for a public inquiry.Shadow Health Secretary Andrew Lansley believes that one will help avoid mistakes in the future.

Andy Burnham considers Robert Francis' second stage inquiry to be adequate for the moment.

The report has found that at least 400 more people had died at the hospital between 2005 and 2008 than would be expected after hearing evidence from more than 900 patients and families.

The other side of recession.An end to comfort shopping

I wonder whether Max Hasting's piece in the Mail will get as many adverse comments as those of Tory shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley.

Hastings is musing about the recession and considers that

Many of us have felt instinctively for years that Britain's crazy boom 'n' party existence could not continue indefinitely. The challenge is to make the best of bad times, rather than slump into despondency.

But maybe I do agree at least partly with this

The Government now wants to persuade us that it is patriotic to shop. Yet one of the worst mistakes of recent times has been to fool ourselves that the more things cost, the more fun they must be.
Our homes are crammed with meaningless rubbish which we bought simply because it was there, and we had flexible friends in our wallets.
It will hurt no one except shopkeepers if we take a holiday from comfort shopping.

Lansley-a maverick or a stooge for Cameron?

Andrew Lansley's interview with the Times yesterday in which has aroused a great deal of controversy not least within the Tory party itself.

He promised an extra £28b of spending on the health service,that works out 2% above the Labour party's current levels.At the same time he admitted that the Tories had not broadened their appeal wide enough to win the next election.

Shadow chanellor George Osbourne came out later saying that yes he would increase spending but only as a proportion of GDP and refused to put a % figure on it.

Ben Brogan says his comments have

tested Shadow Cabinet harmony because he makes the consequential point that other areas will have to suffer cuts, but doesn't say which ones. They feel that Mr Lansley is abusing his position as one of the Untouchables - George Osborne is another - who have been guaranteed their jobs by Mr Cameron until the next election and beyond

Fraser Nelson is reminded of another politician who made promises

Eight years ago, Tony Blair sat on Sir David Frost’s sofa and pledged that Labour would spend 8% of GDP on health. Brown called up afterwards in a fury, saying “you’ve spent my f**king budget”. One wonders what David Cameron said to Andrew Lansley after his Times interview where he says 11% of GDP should be spent on health

Writing in this morning's Telegraph Iain Dale thinks

Perhaps Mr Lansley was having an off day, or the journalists had loosened his tongue to such an extent that he voiced thoughts that would normally be expected to have emerged from Oliver Letwin

. but reckons that in reality

it is clear that Mr Lansley wished to reinforce David Cameron's message of change. He reckons people want to vote Conservative with their heads, but not yet with their hearts. Demonstrating a huge funding commitment to the soft, cuddly NHS does more than anything to demonstrate that the party really has moved on from its more hard-faced days.

Wahtever the reasons,it is clear that if this was to happen the Tories in the current climate would have to cut other spending,defence would be one option,education or law and order would be another,but surely this would merely upset the party grandeurs.